July 24: Refugees Welcome? Perspectives on Inclusion in Specialty Coffee

*Due to limited capacity, this event is reserved for coffee industry professionals. Please contact Anna at anna@1951coffee.com with any questions.

1951 Coffee Company, in conjunction with the Bay Area Coffee Community, invites you to a conversation on employing refugees in the coffee industry.

We will open with a panel discussion featuring 1951 Barista Training Program graduates from Blue Bottle, Dandelion Chocolate, Mazarine Coffee, and our very own 1951 Coffee Shop. Following the panel, we will review some practical ways to implement more inclusive hiring, onboarding, and training practices.

When we started 1951 Coffee, we wanted to see what it would look like for the coffee industry to welcome refugees not only as customers, but also as baristas behind the bar. As gathering places in society, cafes represent a unique environment for newcomers to find a supportive community while gaining valuable skills. We believe that the specialty coffee industry can be at the forefront of welcoming the Bay Area refugee community by inviting them to be participants in the culture of our cafes.

We invite you to join us at the 1951 Coffee Shop for our seasonal summer drinks, delicious Syrian bites catered by Old Damascus Fare and a chance to win a number of raffled prizes for coffee aficionados! Our location is a 10-minute walk from the Downtown Berkeley BART station.

About 1951
1951 Coffee Company is a specialty coffee and job training non-profit in Berkeley that works with refugees and asylees to find employment in the coffee industry. We run 40-hour barista training classes that cover a variety of brewing methods, including pour overs and espresso drinks, as well as customer service skills. To date, we have trained 120+ baristas in Oakland and San Diego.